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Monday, September 12, 2011

Labour Day Weekend 2011 (Ottawa)

My brother has lived in Ottawa for about 5 years, and in all our visits, we had never been to Gatineau Park. We headed to Pink Lake with my brother and his family (he, his wife, his almost 8 year old son and just 3 year old daughter). I suspect there were many more birds and critters around than we saw, but we made too much noise :)

Caterpillar on the boardwalk...had fun explaining the "fake head" to my nephew.

View of Pink Lake

My daughter, husband and myself (my son couldn't come.)

This bird (below) is the only new bird I saw at Gatineau Park. I was initially thinking it might be a Hermit Thrush. Not sure though....I can't make out the details well enough to count it as a life bird...

This is the first time I had ever seen a milipede in the wild :) Yup, they're gross!

On Sunday, it rained, so we did "indoor" things. On Monday, we went to Brewer Pond to catch frogs...my brother and the kids tried numerous times while at Pink Lake to catch the slippery suckers, with no luck. They had better luck at Brewer Pond. While there, we saw....

Lots of dragon flies.

A Garder Snake...

This Song Sparrow...which is actually a lifer...have seen them, but never identified them before...

And this Great Blue Heron! My brother was basically standing next to it then spooked it trying to get my attention.

While sitting on my brother's deck, this Black Capped Chickadee came for visit :)

And these White-breasted Nuthatches (below) were busy on this stump most of the afternoon on Monday. They were fun to watch! Apparently, before cutting the tree down, it was frequented by Pileated Woodpeckers. I was hoping to see one this weekend, but didn't. The feeders at the window in the background were busy all day with Goldfinches, Chickadees, Nuthatches and an unidentified Woodpecker.

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About Me

I am a recently "retired" homeschooling mom of two children. My son is now in College and we made the decision this year to send my daughter to high school for grade 10. I enjoy reading, birdwatching, and learning about photography. This blog is a more like a diary of my birding experiences and some of my favourite bird photos. Take a look around...comment if you like something :)
Please leave me a comment and do correct me if I've misidentified a bird.